I dusted off my old Note 3 yesterday. It was my daily phone until about 3 years ago. Got an s9+, quickly swapped that out for this current Note 20 Ultra.
Anyway, when Samsung tried to force me to either use an insecure, yet still perfectly fine phone, or spend money on a new device, I rooted the Note 3 and flashed a custom ROM. CyanogenMod I think it was back then.
Funny thing, when I went to the store to buy the s9+, my Note 3 was running a more modern version of Android than the new phone I was purchasing!
Out of curiosity, yesterday I updated the Note 3 to Android 11 using the Lineage 18.1 ROM. It still works beautifully. When lineage get their version 19 going with Android 12, I'm going to give that a go on it too.
So I am in two minds. On the one hand, clearly samsung should be congratulated for making a device whose hardware stands the test of time - almost 9 years and counting. On the other hand, it annoys me no end that their support is so meagre. I know why it is that way, but it is so wasteful.
How do you guys feel about this? Are you happy to purchase a new phone regularly based on Samsung's support decisions? Clearly they are capable of supporting devices for longer, they just choose not to. I'd be interested to hear what other samsung customers think.
I have a note 20 ultra which if it's the last genuine note I will be keeping. Over the years Samsung has like Apple have promised so much yet given so little except their pricing. So with supposedly major updates promised for these phones why would you upgrade? For every day people and I'm speaking for myself the cost to upgrade for minor hardware changes doesn't justify the need to spend more money. But to each their own. Money certainly is the driving force behind all these companies and thanks to us the consumers....well you know. Good post my friend
Thanks for your reply! That's a good point you make regarding this being potentially the last Note. I might just have to keep this Note 20 Ultra of mine too. Based off my Note 3 experience, I should get another 10 or so years out of it, maybe.
This kind of thing is probably one of the reasons something like FairPhone exists. Personally, I'm quite interested in the pine phone too.
I think Samsung should give software updates a similar duration of Apple.
They say they want to "Reduce E Waste" but make people have to get a new phone, or risk security.. It feels to me like Samsung only cares about the money.
Hi @Braaaains, thank you for your feedback regarding updates. I've passed on your thoughts internally to the relevant department.
Please note, we cannot always implement customer suggestions due to various reasons and will not be able to provide an update on whether we are going to be implementing your suggestion or not. We hope you understand.
Hello @SamsungLaura. Thanks for your reply, and for passing on my thoughts.
I don't really expect samsung will change its update policy, I was just trying to make the point that their hardware is clearly capable of a much greater longevity than their support cycle admits. My Note 3 is running android 11 flawlessly. Perhaps a better message to pass on, from my point of view at least, is to keep allowing devices to have their bootloaders unlocked so that post-support devices can at least still flash custom roms. Nowadays you don't need root access for that.
